1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ring binders adapted to releasably hold together articles, such as documents (e.g., sheets of paper, card stock, scrapbook pages, etc.) and other articles (e.g., media storage pages, photograph storage pages, etc.) having one or more holes in locations corresponding to rings of the ring binder. More particularly, the present invention relates to binder mechanisms and collapsible ring binders with rings adapted to be disposed in either an upright configuration for holding articles together or a collapsed configuration for flattening the binder.
2. Description of Related Art
A ring binder is a device for holding together documents, such as sheets of paper, for storage, transport, etc. As known, conventional ring binders generally include a binder casing having a front cover, a rear cover and an interconnecting spine. The front cover and the rear cover are typically pivotal relative to the spine for providing book-like opening of the binder. The binder also includes a binder device, typically a tandem array of two to five rings, that are movable between an open configuration and a closed configuration. Documents to be attached to the binder are typically provided with a number of holes disposed along one side thereof, which number generally corresponds to the number of rings present in the binder device. To attach documents to the ring binder, a user opens the rings and passes the rings through the documents' holes. Thereafter the binder device is returned to a closed configuration, thereby securely retaining the documents to the binder.
Conventional ring binders occupy a large volume of space relative to the actual dimensions of the binder. The upright position of the rings of the binder device within the binder causes conventional binders to be thick even when empty, especially in the case of larger binders (e.g., binders with 3, 4, or more inch high rings). The thicknesses of the binders wastes space in packaging, shipping, retail display, user storage, and the like. Regardless of the various packaging schemes employed for conventional binders, a large amount of space remains unutilized when a plurality of binders are packaged or stored together.